2010

Companies form a global business alliance to address enterprise cloud computing needs

PARIS, France, SAN JOSE, Calif., HOPKINTON, Mass., PALO ALTO, Calif. - September 27, 2010 -

Orange Business Services together with Cisco, EMC and VMware have formed a business alliance, called Flexible 4 Business, to offer end-to-end cloud computing services for enterprises. This business alliance will help customers easily transition to cloud computing and gain the infrastructure flexibility, cost reduction and business performance optimization cloud computing enables. Orange Business Services will be the service provider for the business alliance and will deliver the four types of pay-per-use managed cloud solutions based on the industry-leading technologies from the four partners. The Flexible 4 Business cloud services portfolio will initially be composed of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solutions, including private cloud and back-up services, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, including security and unified communications services.

Through Orange Business Services cloud portfolio supported by the Flexible 4 Business alliance, enterprises can realize the benefits of having IT as a service without the concern of building their own cloud computing infrastructure. Through a single service provider, customers will be able to accelerate the deployment of highly secure cloud services across their enterprise while reducing management complexity. The end-to-end cloud services offered by Orange Business Services bring together best-of-breed technologies through the Flexible 4 Business alliance that are pre-integrated and pre-tested to deliver higher application performance across the enterprise.  

The Flexible 4 Business alliance brings together four complementary IT and communication leaders with long-standing collaborative relationships who have a history of delivering innovative solutions that solve the business challenges of enterprise customers. Orange Business Services is certified at the highest level by Cisco, EMC, and VMware to bring the network, server, storage, virtualization and management expertise necessary to integrate the entire cloud solution on a global basis. As the service provider in all Flexible 4 Business engagements, Orange Business Services will commit to tiered end-to-end service level agreements (SLAs).

“Orange Business Services has a long heritage in providing managed datacenter services and hosting and has combined this with its networking and security expertise to provide a growing suite of cloud computing services," said Peter Hall, principal analyst at Ovum. “The Flexible 4 Business alliance brings together leading players in cloud computing so enterprises can have the confidence that solutions, including private cloud, are delivered and managed on a global scale to the highest standards."

Cloud services to be delivered by Flexible 4 Business:

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS):

• Private cloud: Customized solutions based on Vblock Infrastructure Packages that combine best-in-class virtualization, networking, computing, storage, security, and management technologies from Cisco, EMC and VMware, together with  a comprehensive service catalogue (computing, storage, operating systems, middleware) based on platforms hosted in Orange datacenters, sub-parties datacenters or in customers datacenters. The related services are managed by Orange Business Services on an “as-a-service” mode enabling the expected flexibility in a highly secured environment.

• Back-up services: Highly secure hosted and managed back-up solution delivered as-a-service: evolving and charged according to real usage, enabling customers to benefit from an effective solution that grows with their requirement and does not require initial investments.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS):

• Security services: Enable the ability to offer anti-virus and URL filtering solutions as-a-service. These SaaS solutions enable all users to benefit from immediate protection even when out of the office, and for customers to roll out precise security policies within seconds.

• Unified communications services: Comprehensive unified communications solution hosted and managed from Orange Business Services datacenters to reduce costs. Services are available from all types of terminals. Administrators can allocate services as required and therefore adapt usage and costs to the precise needs of the company.

Executive Quotes:

“Cloud computing has truly come of age with Flexible 4 Business,” said Vivek Badrinath, chief executive officer, Orange Business Services. “Today’s business alliance will make cloud computing a reachable reality for global enterprises, providing for our customers’ security requirements and mitigating the complexity of technical migration. Orange Business Services has built its reputation catering to the global business needs of multinationals. With industry’s top cloud players we will ease the migration for our enterprise customers.”

" Cloud computing unleashes the power of Cisco’s unique virtualized datacenter architecture to deliver highly secure IT services more efficiently across the enterprise,” said Robert Lloyd,  executive vice president, worldwide operations, Cisco. “This business alliance brings together four industry leading companies with complementary global expertise to offer our customers new choices with a comprehensive set of cloud services built on Cisco’s innovative Unified Computing System and Cisco’s industry leading collaboration and security applications.”

“Architected properly, customers can benefit from having their own private clouds seamlessly integrated with service provider clouds to deliver on the promise of providing unprecedented gains in operational efficiency, quality of service and business agility for Enterprise IT,” said Howard Elias, president and chief operating officer, Information Infrastructure and Cloud Services, EMC.  “This expanded partnership combines best-of-breed technology and service from four industry leading companies.  With Vblock as the core to the cloud service coupled with complementary IT services based on EMC’s industry-leading storage platforms and backup and recovery software, customers will have more choice and flexibility as they take advantage of cloud computing services.”

“We are pleased to expand our partnerships with Orange Business Services, Cisco and EMC,” said Carl Eschenbach, executive vice president of global field operations, VMware. “This new business alliance will leverage industry-leading cloud infrastructure technologies underpinned by our VMware vSphere™, VMware vCenter™ Server and VMware vCloud™ Director virtualization solutions to deliver IT as a service for enterprises – helping them achieve greater levels of availability, reliability and agility in a secure, scalable cloud platform.”

Key Facts on Flexible 4 Business Alliance members:
With Flexible 4 Business, four of the major players in cloud computing will deliver their unique core competencies in cloud computing:

• Orange Business Services – A global leader in delivering integrated communications solutions for multinational corporations, Orange Business Services operates the world’s largest, seamless network for voice and data. As a major communication services operator it provides natural expertise of end-to-end service management, as well as a pay-per-use business model. It is the linchpin behind Flexible 4 Business, providing the integration and global delivery for the cloud solution.

• Cisco – The worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate will deliver the network and unified computing infrastructure for the cloud computing services as well as Cisco’s industry-leading unified communication and security solutions.

• EMC – The world leader in information infrastructure solutions, EMC provides innovative, flexible, VMware-aware storage platforms that form the foundation of cloud computing services while its industry-leading data deduplication solutions enable customers to gain critical efficiencies though backup as a service.

• VMware – The global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, VMware will provide VMware vSphere™, VMware vCenter™ Server and VMware vCloud™ Director, comprising the virtualization platform that helps enable the agility, flexibility and high availability required to deliver IT as a service.

A replay of the press conference will be available after 1 p.m. CET, Tuesday, 28 September:

www.orange-business.com/Flexible4business-CloudComputingBusinessAlliance


About Orange Business Services
Orange Business Services, the France Telecom Orange branch dedicated to B2B services, is a leading global integrator of communications solutions for multinational corporations. With the world’s largest, seamless network for voice and data, Orange Business Services reaches 220 countries and territories with local support in an additional 166. Offering a comprehensive package of communication services covering cloud computing, enterprise mobility, M2M, security, unified communications, videoconferencing, and broadband, Orange Business Services delivers a best-in-class customer experience across a global landscape. Thousands of enterprise customers and 1.4 million users rely on Orange Business Services international platform for communicating and conducting business. Orange Business Services is a four-time winner of Best Global Operator at the World Communication Awards. Learn more at www.orange-business.com

About Orange
Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators. With almost 131 million customers, the Orange brand covers internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the Group operates. At the end of 2009, France Telecom had sales of 44.8 billion euros (22.1 billion euros for the first half of 2010). At June 30, 2010, the Group had a total customer base of 182 million customers in 32 countries. These include 123.1 million mobile customers and 13.2 million broadband internet (ADSL) customers worldwide. Orange is the number three mobile operator and the number three provider of broadband internet services in Europe and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.
    
With its industrial project, "conquests 2015", Orange is simultaneously addressing its employees, customers and shareholders, as well as the society in which the company operates, through a concrete set of action plans. These commitments are expressed through a new vision of human resources for employees; through the deployment of a network infrastructure upon which the Group will build its future growth; through the Group’s ambition to offer a superior customer experience thanks in particular to improved quality of service; and through the acceleration of international development.
France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on Euronext Paris (compartment A) and on the New York Stock Exchange.
For more information (on the internet and on your mobile): www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com, www.orange-innovation.tv

About Cisco Systems
Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, this year celebrates 25 years of technology innovation, operational excellence and corporate social responsibility. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

About EMC
EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world’s leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC’s products and services can be found at www.EMC.com

About VMware
VMware (NYSE: VMW) delivers virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable IT organizations to energize businesses of all sizes.  With the industry leading virtualization platform – VMware vSphere™ – customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, improve agility, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2009 revenues of $2 billion, more than 190,000 customers and 25,000 partners, VMware is the leader in virtualization which consistently ranks as a top priority among CIOs. VMware is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange Personal Communications Services Limited, Orange France or France Telecom.

Cisco, the Cisco logo, and Cisco Systems are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.

EMC and Vblock are registered  trademarks and/or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries.

VMware, VMware vCenter, VMware vCloud, VMware vSphere are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. The use of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.